In the afternoon and evening of 10 April 2026, an event was held at the headquarters of the Italian Geographical Society — Palazzetto Mattei in Villa Celimontana, Rome — as part of the 2026 edition of GeoNight, the European Night of Geography.
The initiative, focused on scientific and cultural outreach, featured a significant contribution from GREAL, in keeping with its long-standing collaboration with the oldest and most prestigious geographical society in Italy.
The contribution of the research centre of the European University of Rome focused in particular on the story — on the centenary of the event — of the polar expedition of the airship NORGE. Departing from Rome on 10 April 1926, the airship completed the first trans-Arctic aerial crossing between Europe and America, flying over the North Pole on 12 May of the same year under the leadership of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and the Italian engineer Umberto Nobile.
The airship, remarkable in size — approximately 106 metres in length — was designed and built in Italy and featured an architectural structure that was highly advanced for its time, suited to long-distance flights and extreme conditions.
The activities offered included short presentations, simulator demonstrations, and visualisations through immersive virtual reality devices, following a programme developed by Professors Gianluca Casagrande and Roberta Rodelli. The latter is also the author, among other things, of a virtual reconstruction of the NORGE airship.
Supporting the UER professors in what proved to be a formative “on-the-job” experience for one evening were external volunteers, interns, and students from the Degree Programme in Tourism and Territorial Enhancement at the European University of Rome, coordinated by Lorenzo Sergio di Donnamasa:
Eric Donghi, Lucrezia Sergio di Donnamasa, Leonardo Morreale, Michele Prisco, Kevin Micarelli, Paolo Marletta, Cristiano Crocenzi, Greta Pagnetti, and Diana Costantino.